During the Geotech and Environmental Group induction session for the 2025-26 academic year, PhD student Zhijun Xu was awarded the 2025 Turner Prize for his work on developing equipment to model excavations in clay. The work substantially improved the understanding of stability of novel excavation systems.
The award was established by Philip Turner, a mechanical engineer in the Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, who designed a wide range of innovative devices including the 10m diameter beam centrifuge. He bequeathed a prize to be awarded annually for "outstanding work in geotechnical centrifuge testing conducted by a research student working at the Schofield Centre in Cambridge".
See CUED News article for more detail on Zhijun's research.